by TED KOOSER
Mr. Kooser, U.S. poet laureate 2004-06, wants “to pass along the news of the death of my dear old yellow Lab, Howard, at age 15, in the hope that a few of you will join me in wishing him well on his trip to the stars. Here’s how it felt to me to lose my good friend.”
Death of a Dog
The next morning I felt that our house
had been lifted away from its foundation
during the night, and was now adrift,
though so heavy it drew a foot or more
of whatever was buoying it up, not water
but something cold and thin and clear,
silence riffling its surface as the house
began to turn on a strengthening current,
leaving, taking my wife and me with it,
and though it had never occurred
to me until that moment, for fifteen years
our dog had held down what we had
by pressing his belly to the floors,
his front paws, too, and with him gone
the house had begun to float out onto
emptiness, no solid ground in sight.